Meanwhile
by A Lone Black Rose
Summary: First in a series of one-shots that accompany INEBG; while Victoria was getting shot by Jaffa and playing scrabble in Latin, the Titans were doing their best to bring her back. WILL NOT BE CONTINUED.


**Title: Meanwhile…  
>Time: Somewhere around Chapters 2&amp;3, probably<br>Characters: the Titans, spec. Nightwing; Batman  
>Purpose: Because it's about bloody time! I wrote this during my binge at the end of January (save the last two paragraphs) and it's been sitting about waiting for a proper moment. It won't fit anywhere else and I like it too much to let it go to waste.<br>Other notes: David is Starfire and Nightwing's son and is 17 now, a year older than V.**

Raven was going to kill him. He had absolutely no doubts on the subject.

It was supposed to be a simple mission; a break-in at Wayne Tech, that's it. No known super villains, no super dangerous tech around, both he and Raven there to monitor the situation. Easy as pie, right?

Too bad Powers was dealing in the illegal as well as legal. Or, that's what the scientists had said when they woke up. And that's what he really, _really_ hoped.

He just hoped Star would leave nice flowers on his grave, because even if Raven didn't kill him, Bruce would.

Nightwing ran a hand through his hair tiredly as he stared at the shattered bits of the gun recovered from the Wayne building, a million thoughts, including his own funeral plans, going through his head.

According to the head researcher on the project, it was supposed to be a means of transporting things to other realities (they hadn't mentioned what would happen when they wanted to get the stuff back). Unfortunately, that's really all they could tell him; the testing hadn't begun yet and the plans for the device had been stored on an isolated supercomputer.

Had been.

Said computer was currently in Cyborg's possession, a jigsaw puzzle in its own right.

To say that Raven had been upset when her daughter disappeared would be like saying the Titanic had a small leak; Nightwing just counted himself lucky that Changeling was in the area and able to calm his wife down before she brought the entire building down around them.

At present, both Logans were in their room and no-one was going to disturb them anytime soon.

With the sorceress and shapeshifter occupied and the device in front of him making just as much sense as it had an hour previous – i.e., none whatsoever—Dick got up to make a call he was dreading so much the concept of facing Raven was almost more appealing.

Almost.

"What?"

Trust Bruce to open with manners and tact.

"I've got some…news for you."

"What's happened? Where's Victoria?"

How did he always manage to know everything?

"We're not sure."

Silence. _The look_.

"You're not sure?" God, twenty-eight years out of the cave and the old man still managed to make him feel like a child being chastised.

"I finally convinced Raven to let her on a mission, a small break-in at Wayne Tech. A couple of punks got their parents' security codes and decided to go joyriding with top-secret tech. Unfortunately, not everything was on the manifests; apparently Powers has been doing a few less-then-legal tests and Victoria got hit with a beam of some sort."

"You're thinking inter-universe travel?"

"There was nothing left, which would be physically impossible if she were dead. Plus a couple of the scientists copped to playing in that field."

"Do you have the device?"

Ah, here comes the other shoe.

"Not in one piece, no."

Brow raise. Lean back from the camera, show the pieces.

"Your friend have temper issues?"

"Yeah, and the schematics aren't in much better shape. Cy's working on putting the hard drive back together, but it doesn't look good."

"I'll sniff around, see what I can find. Powers may have replaced me, but I still have connections."

"Thanks, Bruce. I'll keep you posted."

"And Dick?"

Correction, _this_ was the other shoe.

"Yeah?"

"If we don't get her back, the sorceress will be the least of your worries."

The screen went black and Richard was left in the silence of his lab with nothing but world's hardest jigsaw and a sinking feeling.

Later that night, he would delegate the task to David and disappear until the next morning without ever offering an explanation for either his vanishing or why he smelled like incense and two-hundred dollar a bottle aftershave.

**A/N**: **This is for all of you who wanted some Titan action. The proper sequel to INEBG, entitled _Ties That Bind_, is well under way and shall be up within the week.**


End file.
